#26

I guess we can imagine that my critical this week is going to be about prose poems. There are on going arguments about whether prose poetry is poetry or prose, or a separate genre altogether. Most critics argue that prose poetry belongs in the genre of poetry because of its heightened attention to language and prominent use of metaphor.Other critics argue that prose poetry falls into the genre of prose because prose poetry relies on prose's association with narrative and on the expectation of an objective presentation of truth. I believe that most of the poem in our packet from this week should in fact be made into a short story. Why do I say this? because you essential elements. The exposition, rising action, climax, and falling action all work into one. Lets reflect back on the first day of class. We discussed the definition of poetry. Some might have expand on the basic idea but for the most part we think of poetry as a collections of thoughts/emotions. A prose poem is not a collection of thoughts/emotions. In a way its a story about you thought and emotions.

For my free entry this week, I decided to post a inspiration poem.
The Victor
C.W Longenecker

If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you like to win but think you can't,
It's almost a cinch you won't.
If you think you'll lose, you're lost.
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow's will
It's all in the state of mind.
If you think you are out classed, you are.
You've got to think high to rise.
You've got to be sure of your-self before
You can ever win the prize.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man.
But sooner or later, the man who wins
is the man who thinks he can

#24

One of the poems from the found and listing the caught my eye was Symposium Paul Muldoon. I just found this poem very interesting. I think because the style is playful but clever at the same time. In my opinion, the author shows a sense of humor at times throughout the poem.
Paul Muldoon
Symposium
You can bring a horse to water but you can't make it hold
its nose to the grindstone and hunt with the hounds.
Every dog has a stitch in time. Two heads? You've been sold
one good turn. One good turn deserves a bird in the hand.

A bird in the hand is better than no bread.
To have your cake is to pay Paul.
Make hay while you can still hit the nail on the head.
For want of a nail the sky might fall.

People in glass houses can't see the wood
for the new broom. Rome wasn't built between two stools.
Empty vessels wait for no man.

A hair of the dog is a friend indeed.
There's no fool like the fool
who's shot his bolt. There's no smoke after the horse is gone.

I feel like the author does a very good job on his word play. It is full of allusion and rhyme. At times sometimes I feel like the rhymes are forced but that was not a huge problem only an opinion. This poem displays meaning that can be hidden. In other words, you have to read deep into the poem itself. You can't just read it at face value. Meanings, words, and characters fold back or feed upon each other. He is particularly good at conveying a moment or a character from his past, or following a chain of memories or incidents through unlikely twists. Texts within the poems are elsewhere, ideas and approaches are reexamined in completely different circumstances.

#23

This week discussed some different types of forms within poetry and one of them happened to be found poems. Let say say that this type of form was not hard, I just did not like it at all. It was fun that our professor allowed some class time to experience how to write a found poem. I found that exercise very difficult. I was sitting in my seat completely lost. As I browsed through the magazine, I did find something that caught my eye but I could not write a thing about it. I think I probably come up with two lines at the most. I think do not have a creative mind. Why do I not like found poems? because they take words or phrases from other texts and reorder them and them present them as poems. I am very much in doubt about doing this because I am afraid of plagiarism. We have been told not to complete of paraphrase other people works with out quoting them and those things just stay stuck in my mind. Many poets have also chosen to incorporate snippets of found texts into larger poems. When poets write those snippets in there poems in their mind they think its helpful which it is, but For me and maybe its just me. I found them hard to follow. Because once I read the snippets I have to go back and reread the lines in the poem to get a better understanding. At times this can be very frustrating especially if you are reading something difficult and you don't already like such as that periodic table found poem in our packet this week.

#22

I kind of liked the Ghazal form and probably because its a poem based on couplets and has a rhyme. A ghazal maybe understood as a poetic expression of both pain and loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. One poem in particular that caught my eye was Jim Harrison Drinking Song. I think this is a very relate able topic and when people read this poem, Its nice to know that they are not the only in the world that has felt this way or even went down that road. I also found it very interesting that the author got his point across only writing six couplets. Each couplet does not relate to any other one but it still keep the theme consist throughout his poem.. I think my favorite couplet was "I'm going to be a child about it and I can't help it, I was born this way and it makes me very happy to fish and drink." I think that is should a powerful line because I know I have come to a point in my life where I felt like I was going about the situation in a childish way, and I tried making an excuse by saying I was born this way or that just how I am.

#21

For my free entry this week I decided to do Joshua form. It is called a bitter Haiku. I enjoyed creating our own format and decided to put those ideas to use. So here it goes:



malevolent love combined
as one distinct feeling
of relentless compassion.

I know this is not that bitter, but I tried.

#20

I know everyone in the class is probably going to a critical blog on the sestina poem because I know that was the most horrible thing I have ever had to for a school assignment. So I am going to talk about how much I disliked the anaphora poems. In the packet this week, I noticed that there was not information about the anaphora poems. I guess because it was self explanatory but I decided to look more into these poems

• Anaphora in general is used of coreferential relations, where one element in a sentence takes its meaning or reference from another.
• Famous poets use this figure of speech to convey and emphasize unusual and vivid images.
• The use of strong word association changes the mode of thought and adds variation, embellishment and adornment to literary works.

Those were just some interesting facts about Anaphora poems that I found as I was browsing the Internet and I thought it may or may not be useful. I would like to look at one of the Anaphora poems from our packet in more detail. The Burning Heart it was a good read but the repetition is very contradictory leaves the reader puzzled about who is the speaker and who is directing the thoughts to. I really just didn't understand that and I am the type of person that likes to know all the facts so I can put the poem together. Also at the end of the poem when it says Do you regret your life? that is question to me that as a reader you can't answer because you don not know the background information.